San Diego Central Library: A new chapter

After decades of hoping and planning, San Diego gets a new Central Library next month. The $185 million downtown library features a steel-ribbed dome, a 352-seat auditorium and a charter school, which will be housed on two floors of the nine-story building. Library Director Deborah Barrow and e3 Civic High Executive Director Helen Griffith recently spoke with the U-T San Diego Editorial Board about the new library and charter school. Here are condensed and edited excerpts of the interview.

Q: People first began seriously talking about a new library for San Diego about 30 years ago. It’s been a long time in coming and now it’s here. What’s the importance of this moment.

BARROW: It is a wonderful thing for San Diego. Libraries are extremely important. They are more used than ever. I think it is a strong commitment by the City of San Diego to education and empowerment of our community members.

Q: There’s going to be a school in this library. I don’t know of another municipal library that has a relationship like this with a public school.

GRIFFITH: It is the only school in the nation, that we know of, to coexist within a public library. We have a deep commitment to making sure that our students excel and that this is a model for 21st century teaching and learning. It is a model because of the location, to coexist within a library, to garner all the resources of another institution. The library in the City of San Diego is our chief partner and they bring many resources. The librarians will serve as instructors working alongside our humanities teachers. We will have extensive technology.

Q: Where did the name e3 Civic High come from?

GRIFFITH: It came from our board of directors, the e3 Civic High is Engaged, Educate and Empower which is the foundation of our school. As a model for 21st century teaching, we want to make sure our learners are engaged, not only in their education but in their community. We want to create civic leaders. We are a problem-based learning school. So our students will actually solve real world challenges. We want to create that civic leadership as a foundation that runs across the curriculum.

Q: In the digital age is there still a need for a massive building in the core of downtown to serve as a public library.

BARROW: The library has stayed abreast of the digital age. The library is one of the places that people could very early on come to use computers. We have taken that mission on as a place that continues to adapt to whatever the technology is at the time. We are more than just the books in a big facility. We are a place for people. There is some of everything that you need in a cultural, educated, city, and this is part of the reason the San Diego Public Library has been so important to the city. We are a major city in the nation. And now we are going to have a major library that matches that city.

Q: We still hear a lot of criticism or questioning, why in this age we need such a facility. And if we do need it shouldn’t it be in Clairemont as opposed to downtown.

BARROW: The downtown is the hub of our city. And people come to downtown still. This library has made access much easier for people. When you want to get to the city you can come down and for once in 50 years find a parking spot because we will have 250 spaces under the library with two floors of parking. We are on the trolley line. We are on the bus line. So anyone who wants to come to downtown or wants to visit a major library, come to a cultural event, come and study in a place where they can find the equipment, the technology, the people who can help. All of that will be there. We are going to be part of the economic hub of the city because that is part of what downtown is.

Q: Do you have numbers about how many people used the existing Central Library and how many you anticipate will use the new downtown library?

BARROW: The old downtown library was built in 1954 and when it was built the population was just less than half a million in San Diego. Visits to the library system, not just to the downtown library, were about 15,000 per year. The population has mushroomed to 1.3 million and the visitors, to the Central Library, is about half a million per year. In terms of the entire library system it is about five million.

Q: What do you project for the new building?

BARROW: We are thinking something in the range of 2,000 per day.

Q: When these 2,000 people a day walk in the building, what are they going to find?

BARROW: They are going to fall in love with knowledge because this is going to be a Mecca for information in San Diego. Our collection, two-thirds of which has been in a basement, will be out and available for the most part. We will have this beautiful iconic library with an auditorium which is so different from anything we have right now. Where else are we going to be able to provide free programming for 350 people, where you can come to a cultural center in essence and hear an author talk. Our library mission is ‘Inspiring lifelong learning through connections to knowledge and each other.’ And the components there are about knowledge. They are about empowerment. They are about connecting the community. The first floor is the most active floor of the library. This is where you will find the fast access items, the latest best-seller, if you want to download something, that is the place where you go for information, how do I use my iPad to download a book that I can read or one that I can hear? You go on into the area which is the Children’s Room. It is going to be a very fascinating location for our children. We will also have a Disability Center where we provide tools for people with disabilities who want to access information. You move up to the second floor which is another active very fun location. The Teen Room is there, designed by teens at the Kearny Mesa High School Construction Academy. In addition to that we’ve got homework space. Our technology is spread out through the library. We should have over 300 devices for people to use including items that they can check out and use like iPads and Kindles. We believe the library is going to be the ‘heart of the city,’ a place where people will gather. And they will have access to unprecedented technology and information.

Q: The school was kind of a fortuitous development spawned by financial trouble in the city’s inability to come up with the money to finish the library. And the school district came up with 20 million. Tell us more about the school.

GRIFFITH: The charter was designed to alleviate the overcrowding in the area. Over 5,000 students actually bus out of the area because they can’t be contained at San Diego High and Lincoln High School, the closest high schools. We have a lot of diversity in terms of ethnicity. These students are choosing to be with us because of our curriculum and the attraction of being in this modern building and a 21st century learning space. Our capacity is 500 for all four grades, 9 through 12. We will open September 3rd. We will have 250 students, grades 9 and 10. We will add a ninth grade class every year thereafter. This will be the only year for 10th graders to get into the school so we are really making a big push. We only have 50 seats left at the 10th grade. We are over capacity at 9th grade with a waiting list. But we are pushing our tenth grade population now. The only qualification for students is to apply online and hear a presentation about the school. We actually had a lottery for the 9th grade because we were oversold in terms of interest over 125. The tenth grade was a little slower going as you can imagine. They are already in a high school, a little harder to recruit in that we could not go specifically to the high schools. We will have extensive partnerships which is one of the beautiful things about being downtown. We are in partnership with the City of San Diego. CityTV is right in the library and they will be our consultants to our Media Studio. We will have a heavy focus on writing, doing documentaries as well as the digital environment. Thomas Jefferson School of Law is in partnership with us in creating an after school Law Club. They will also be teaching our civics courses in humanities. All of our students will participate in an internship in the downtown community and beyond.

Q: Will the library be open seven days a week?

BARROW: We are open seven days a week for the Central Library and for some of our branch libraries as well.

Q: There is a somewhat sensitive issue that applies both to the library patrons as well as the students. Some people talk about a downtown library and particularly the existing Central Library, as a repository for homeless people. How are you addressing that issue as a library and as a safety issue for students?

BARROW: First of all, the library serves everyone. We are there and have been there for any individual that wants to come to the library including homeless people. We also are focused on safety and security and a welcoming environment. We know that homelessness is a social issue that faces San Diego in general. It is an issue that is beyond the library but we certainly recognize that we will have people come into the library. And therefore we are going to have people from all walks of life including homeless people. We have partnered with mental health systems as a way to assist with any type of outreach to homeless that may be needed. But in addition to that we are always aware of safety, security and a welcoming environment. When people are not attending the library in the appropriate way or they are not doing what is appropriate in the library, they are asked to leave.

Q: People have free reign within a library. What is to stop people, whether they are homeless or not, from getting up on the top floors where the school is?

GRIFFITH: Safety and security is a concern at every school site. The architect actually designed a private entrance for the school that is not open to public access. And that is really at every school site where that should happen. We have our own private entrance, our own separate address actually. Our elevators are separate as well as our staircase. The staircase that is in the library actually goes through our floor. You can see us but you can’t touch.

BARROW: Everything about this product is unprecedented. When you look at the partnership with the library and the school, when you look at the funding, how this project actually was able to come to fruition. I think we are probably the perfect answer to what people have been always asking for which is that we work together, that we have the public/private, and that we take advantage of whatever assets are available in the public sector. So working with the Unified School District, the Charter School, our private donations, unprecedented in my mind in terms of building a public library. It is an amazing project. And a lot of wonderful people have contributed so much to it. We anticipate that this is going to be quite a model for San Diego and for other cities.